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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

For What It's Worth

While the media obsesses on Anthony Weiner's tweets and why Sarah Palin is being mean to them, there's something happening in Wisconsin. Next month nine state senators -- six Republicans and three Democrats -- face a recall election. What is at stake in Wisconsin is the balance of power. As Dante Chinni of PBS NewsHour explains, "should Democrats manage to pick up a net of three seats in all those recall votes, they would control the Senate and be able to put the brakes on [Governor] Walker's agenda." But, as Howie Klein argues, the recall will reach far beyond Wisconsin. This is a battle that is "crucial for the whole progressive movement and for the future of our country."

Klein reminds us what Governor Walker has wrought:

As you no doubt recall, earlier this year the newly elected extreme Republican governor of the state, Scott Walker, pushed through a radical attack on basic labor rights. His plan to strip workers of the right to bargain collectively for protections against unfair treatment and unsafe worker conditions was one of the greatest assaults on working families in the last half century. And now he's pushing a radical, destructive agenda that guts priorities like education, health care and help for seniors while giving hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to huge corporations. He couldn't have done it with an equally extremist state legislature, which has rubber stamped every single point on his destructive agenda.

It isn't just about Wisconsin. "The Walker agenda," Klein contends, "is being duplicated in state after state by the extreme Republicans who swept into power in last November’s elections. This fight for rights and the basic values we all hold dear will reverberate across the nation, impacting elections in every region of the country."

As Klein insists, "winning these recalls will not just help protect Wisconsin -- it will send a signal to the entire country that we will stand up to extreme, divisive agendas that hurt our values and threaten the priorities we know are so important."